Whether they see them as a great way to communicate with voters or as founts of disinformation and character assassination, the local political blog has arrived and politicians, from presidential candidates to small-town lawmakers, are taking notice.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Kingston Common Council Majority Leader Bill Reynolds of Internet blogs focused on local politics. “This is the first election cycle where I’m seeing it happen on a local level.”
Blogs, the now ubiquitous online web diaries that serve as open forums for any topic you can imagine, are increasingly taking the place of the local barber shop or the corner bar as a place for people to exchange information and opinions on local politics.
“The whole purpose of the Internet is to share information and get more information out there, and from that respect, blogs are a terrific advance,” said City of Poughkeepsie Common Council Chair Brian Doyle.
In the local political blogosphere, the minutia of government takes center stage. Want to debate whether certain streets in your town get preferential treatment by the public works department; whether it matters that the town supervisor is second cousin to the police chief; the ins and outs of lot line deletion? Whatever the issue, chances are it’s up for comment on a local blog – and if it’s not, you can always start your own.
“It’s already a factor,” said Kingston alderman and Mayoral candidate Richard Cahill of the blog he maintains on his campaign Web site. “I have people calling every day to say ‘I like what you wrote on your Web site.’ I think any campaign that doesn’t have a blog and a Web site is really missing the boat.”
Cahill’s blog, updated every few days, features the candidate’s views on political issues in the city. One entry urges readers to come to a Kingston Common Council meeting to voice opposition to the lack of local labor on a major restoration project, another touts his appearance at the city’s annual “Hooley on the Hudson” festival.
But, as just about any local politico can tell you, the blogosphere cuts both ways. Log onto anonymous blogs like the Kingst’onion, Can Cozean (a site dedicated to the ouster of Poughkeepsie Mayor Nancy Cozean) or Cruella’s Truth (covering Dutchess County politics from a purported “insider’s” perspective) and you’ll find rumors, unflattering photos and brutal personal attacks on public figures. A quick look at several political blogs in Ulster and Dutchess counties turns up phrases like “raging racist,” “rageaholic,” “Alderboy,” “Councilman Muppet,” and “slime” in reference to elected officials, political candidates or public employees.
“I don’t read them,” said Kingston Alderwoman AnnMarie DiBella of the local blogs. “It doesn’t serve any productive purpose to hear negative commentary from people who don’t even have the gumption to use their own names.”
“There are good things that can come out of them, but they can be misused as well,” said Doyle, who noted that the character assassination and misuse often associated with blogs is “unfortunate.”
Kingston resident Jeremy Blaber, all of 19 years old, administers Blabernews, a blog dedicated to Kingston politics. For the past 18 months, Blaber, a city Democratic committeeman, said he’s seen traffic at the site rise from about 20 “hits” each day to more than 350. Blaber says he runs a fairly loose operation in terms of visitors’ posts. One of the few limits he does put on discussions in the forum: a ban on taking shots at family members of public officials. When a local political leader’s daughter was arrested on drunken driving charges recently, Blaber said he got dozens of comments that he refused to post on the site. He also admits that his own political loyalties influence which comments make it onto the site and which do not.
Despite the popularity of his site, Blaber said he’s unsure if the blog has the power to sway voters.
“I don’t think I would want to influence an election (with the site),” said Blaber. “I just want people to have information before they vote.”
The quality of the information on Blabernews and other blogs however is the subject of fierce debate. Blog proponents say the free flow of information without the filter of traditional media makes for a more informed public. Others say that, lacking any professional editorial controls, blogs have become a forum for rumor-mongering and misinformation. Cahill, his opponent, Kingston Mayor James Sottile and other local politicians all claim their opponents orchestrate whisper campaigns using anonymous posts on the local blogs.
“I would hope that everyone who’s involved with local politics would call on people to step up and engage in open and honest dialogue,” said Doyle. “I admire the people who have the courage to speak their minds in public and identify themselves.”
Whether any of it matters is another unknown. Several local politicians said they believed the local blogs where mostly used by a relatively small number of city hall politics junkies.
“I think it’s a small minority of political gadflies with too much time on their hands who want to feel more important than they are,” was DiBella’s blunt assessment of local political blogs.
State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill (D-Kingston) said he reads a few blogs on state politics by professional journalists, but believed their impact was limited by the relatively small number of people interested in the details of local politics.
“(Blogs) can keep the buzz going within politically active circles,” said Cahill. “It does give life to issues that might not otherwise have life … or don’t deserve life.”